The previous post in this series talked about the types of scenes that will make up most of session - Action, Montage, and Social. This one's going to look at how to mix and match them in play and what else goes on outside of the framework of scenes.
Basic Structural Considerations
As a general rule, you don't want to have two scenes of the same type play out back to back. The mechanics of Health Recovery also dictate that you want to try to include at least one Montage scene between every two Action scenes. Keeping that in mind, when prepping for a session you'll want to consider how to lay out scenes to tell the story you have in mind - but don't get too fixated on sticking to plan or you'll wind up railroading the players, which no one really wants.
Start At The Beginning
The easiest (and arguably most important) part of a session to plan is the beginning, which will do a lot to sent events in motion and determine tone. Everything after the first scene or two is increasingly likely to be derailed by player actions and wind up surprising you to some degree. It's fine if that happens as long as everyone's enjoying themselves, so don't worry about it.
That "everyone" does include the GM, so keep that in mind if the players are pulling you into something you really don't want to pursue right now, like hunting for an old foe when an unrelated current crisis is right in front of them. It's better to make note of their interest and tell them up front that you'll address it in the future but show them that there's something more urgent to deal with at the moment. Most players will be pretty cooperative about that sort of thing as long as you keep faith and do actually follow up when an opportunity arises - perhaps next session, perhaps in an improv scene later in this one.
As to why you might feel the need to nudge the players like that, you won't always be up to improv something for them right away, or you might have planned events that will do what they want but they don't (and can't) know that yet. And if we're being honest, sometimes you have an climactic scene that you really think they'll enjoy but won't come off if the team pursues a side issue this session. It's okay to want to show off something you spent effort on once in a while, just as it's okay for individual players to get the spotlight to themselves now and then. Everyone deserve some moments of awesomeness, even the GM.
Climaxes Do Matter
The other part of a session that's worth some extra planning effort is some kind of climax. These are usually Action scenes, but don't have to be. A powerful Social scene where characters reach an emotional catharsis or uncover deeply hidden secrets can be just as effective as a showy set-piece battle or the most desperate chase, and they require less prep time as well - just some notes about key points that need to come up, NPC motivations and perhaps some light dialog scripting. Action scene climaxes can be uncommonly difficult or elaborate but don't always need to be, sometimes just soundly thrashing some rival villains is plenty good enough.
One thing you want to watch out for is budgeting time for your big scene. They often come late in a session and most groups are playing on some kind of a real-world clock. You can really wreck an otherwise-terrific climactic scene by having it interrupted with people having to leave midway through to get to work, your play venue closing or similar issues. If you expect your scene to run an hour and a half and you've agreed to end in thirty minutes, do everyone a favor. End on a cliffhanger and run the climax first thing next time instead of risking going over or trying to speed-run things. It's not ideal, but it might actually work out better since everyone will be rested and ready to go next time you play.
I'd even argue that it's a good idea to run your big scene no later than the middle of a session when people are still fairly fresh and you have plenty of time, then fill in the rest of your time with a proper denouement and perhaps teasers for next time. If you want to really be radical about narrative structure, plan your "finale" as part of the beginning of the session (which you know you're going to get to) and let the rest of it play out as denouement and a build-up to a cliffhanger that lets you start next session with another climactic scene. This wouldn't work well at all in most media, not even comic books, but roleplaying is its own type of entertainment and operates by different rules. Many people are suffering some play fatigue by the end of a session, which is a problem if you're committed to having your climax as the end of things.
Getting From Point A To Point B
With a beginning and a climax planned out, getting from one to the other is likely wind up needing some improv unless your players are uncommonly predictable. You can and should still lay out basic ideas for the other scenes but they don't need as much detail since they may get revised or even discarded entirely depending on how things play out. Most of them will be relatively simple Montage and Social scenes anyway, so this is the "easy" part of session prep.
While it's entirely possible to add more Action scenes (which will require more effort as usual) into this part of the process, you really need to think about your time budget when doing so. Many groups struggle to do even two of them is a play session, although there are so many variables involved you really have to learn to judge for yourself what your group is capable of. I'll discuss time budgets further in the next post in this series.
Pacing And Tone
So how do you open a session? It may be a good idea to do a brief synopsis of last session's events, although I prefer to leave that up to the players to actually do. If nothing else listening to the things they misremember can be amusing, and you may get some ideas from them, perhaps even retconning events to fit - this is a game about comic book tropes, after all.
After that, that beginning scene you planned comes into play. Consider your options:
Starting with an Action scene immediately throws the PCs into some crisis situation. Things are urgent and they need to act now. It's a good way to get players engaged in the session from the very start, lets them roll some dice and use their cool abilities, and helps remind everyone of the mechanics at the same time. It also means the heroes are likely to take some damage early on, making an immediate follow up Montage scene more meaningful, or you could plan a Social Scene to provide some information about what just happened and then do a Montage as the heroes follow up on that info.
There are many ways to fit this kind of in media res opening into your game. A few examples include:
- The team is suddenly assaulted by old enemies. If victorious, the heroes have a Social scene where they can interrogate defeated foes briefly before they're carted off by the authorities. If they lose, the Social scene consists of being taunted by their enemies until they're driven off by police or other allies, but they might trick the bad guys into revealing something they shouldn't have. Either way, a Montage scene follows where the heroes can heal or act on information gathered to gain bonuses.
- The heroes are out with their supporting cast when they get caught up in a disaster and opportunistic looting. The scene is complicated by the need to get civilians to safety and minimize damage to the surrounding area. Follow up with a Social scene with very different tones depending on whether they succeeded or failed. A Montage scene follows where the heroes can heal or investigate the cause of the disaster.
- The session begins with the heroes in a "Danger Room" training session, which might or might not go horribly awry. When they've finished, start a Social scene where they can review their performance with NPC observers, then run a Montage scene showing how they process lessons learned or patch up their bruises and deal with any humiliations they suffered.
- The scene is a hot pursuit of fleeing criminals, loaded with challenges to cut off escape routes and overtake them and an environment that defines the chase route. This leads to a Social scene where the heroes can interact with their prisoners (if any), police, news reporters or bystanders, some of whom will offer enough assistance (medical or otherwise) to move into a Montage Recovery/Boost scene.
Alternately, you could start out with a Social scene. This is a good way to provide opening exposition, perhaps reviewing earlier events or highlighting a new menace that will be the focus of this session. You might flow from there to a Montage to let the players prep bonuses going forward, or throw them straight into an Action scene - or even move to a different Social scene if that's where the players want to take things. Social scenes are the "safest" scene type to run back-to-back but you'll still want to make them as distinct from one another as possible, eg go from a government briefing room to talking to your informants in a dive bar. Social scenes may or may not involve Overcome rolls, so they may generate early twists for the players to deal with.
Examples of an opening Social scene include:
- The session opens with an official recruiting the heroes to investigate a strange phenomenon in a distant locale, with opportunities to negotiate for more freedom of action and time to work on site. Twists result in greater oversight and tight time limit before other (possibly disastrously misguided) methods are employed. This leads to a Montage scene as they travel to the site and review reports and data or employ their own unique abilities to gather info for bonuses, most likely leading to an Action scene either at the site or when they're intercepted by mysterious foes.
- A whistleblower approaches the team with news of corporate or government corruption. After delivering some info, they abruptly drop dead, either by stealthy assassination or slow poison. This can lead to a second Social scene where they're attempting to gather more info from contacts associated with the corrupt organization, which will be interrupted at some point by an Action scene where assassins try to stop the heroes from getting any farther.
- The team is making an appearance at a civic event when villains appear to settle a grudge. The heroes can use the stage's sound system to to encourage the crowd not to panic and disperse safely while others delay the villain with banter or persuasive arguments. A really successful Overcome might even convince the enemy to take the fight somewhere that collateral damage won't be an issue. One way or other there's going to be an Action scene and a fight, but if the heroes were successful in the opening scene they may have an easier time of it and they'll find the eventual Montage scene more beneficial, with defeated villains giving up info for bonuses more easily and victorious ones helping with Recovery and congratulating them for putting up a good fight even if they take the heroes prisoner.
- The heroes meet with another hero team to discuss an impending crisis. As they talk it becomes clear that something's wrong with the other heroes. Twists when attempting to discover what's wrong will trigger an Action scene as the other team (mid-controlled? evil doppelgangers? android duplicates?) attacks. If combat isn't triggered the PC heroes may get a Montage scene to prep themselves for the inevitable betrayal, otherwise they get the usual opportunity to heal and examine the defeated not-heroes for Boosts.
Finally, you could open with a Montage scene. This is a little more unusual, but is good for giving bonuses to heroes so that they can handle a harder scene that's coming. In rare circumstances you might not allow a full heal-up between sessions (usually when it would make no narrative sense due to some kind of cliffhanger ending last session), in which case a Montage will also let the Recover some Health immediately. Usually you'll go from an opening Montage straight to an Action scene, but putting in a Social scene in between is possible too.
Possible Montage scene openings include:
- The last session ended just before the heroes were going to confront a major foe who's challenged them to a final battle. They have the opportunity to prepare, Boosting themselves using their experiences from past fights with the same villain. They'll have a Social scene before the battle starts as the villain boasts about how doomed they are. Successful Overcomes might throw the enemy off and give the heroes initiative first round, let them spot and potentially avoid an environmental hazard, or even alter the next scene tracker by removing a Green zone box and adding a Red. Then the Action scene begins.
- The team is part of a joint strike force facing a planetary invasion. They can use their Boost opportunities to help ready themselves or their allies before confronting their foes. Once the action scene plays out another Montage occurs, with allies returning the favor by aiding hero Recovery if needed or providing morale or equipment based Boosts. This might be followed by a Social scene as they force is debriefed, or it might roll into another Action scene if the pressure is really on.
- Last session ended with the heroes battered and barely victorious after a hard fight, but enemy reinforcements are closing in fast. They keep their Health and personal Status from that session rather than healing to full, and have just enough time for some quick Recovery or to Boost themselves by setting up an ambush. The following Action scene may be brutal, but the GM could do several things to adjust the difficulty - allowing the heroes to both Recover and Boost in a single Montage, for example, or adding a Social scene with the commander of the reinforcements that might bluff or intimidate them into delaying their a assault for a second Montage opportunity or degrading the die size of their minions.
- The heroes are preparing to testify at the trial of a criminal they captured. They can use Boosts to ready themselves by practicing their testimony with the prosecutor, buying a decent suit if they aren't appearing in costume (or patching up their costume if they are), studying the defense attorney's past trials to look for tricks and traps they like to use on witnesses, or just watching a lot of Perry Mason if their die pool is d4, d4, d6 here. The trial itself is probably a Social scene or series of them as different witnesses take the stand and evidence is presented. How much of the session is occupied by legal procedure depends on how much your table enjoys that sort of thing, and you could experiment with the players temporarily roleplaying the prosecutor, other witnesses or even the judge when they aren't on the stand themselves. Alternately, there might just be one relatively Social scene where each hero testifies, followed by an Action scene of some kind. Perhaps there's an escape attempt aided by villainous allies, an attempted assassination of one or more witnesses or even the defendant ("He knows too much and must be silenced!"), or for something more unique a mentalist villain might assault the courtroom telepathically, sucking the jury into his mindscape to tamper with their minds and accidentally pulling teh heroes in as well if they don't have away in themselves.
The next post in this series will address a few other considerations for GMs and then we'll turn to more player-facing subjects.
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